Text Size

-

+

reset

That doesn’t just mean big defense contractors like Lockheed Martin or BAE Systems. Thousands upon thousands of companies today serve as vendors to the Defense Department, which buys everything from soda to tanks for its troops and employees around the world.

This makes the department unique among other government agencies, but it also means that taking charge of it can be a costly proposition — more costly than, say, running the State Department.

For someone like Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.), reportedly under consideration to be nominated for either defense secretary or secretary of state, the position he winds up with would have a big impact on his and his family’s personal wealth.

In 2011, Kerry was ranked the wealthiest member of the Senate, according to his financial disclosure forms, with a reported net worth of around $193 million.

His most recent disclosure form shows a wide array of publicly traded stocks and financial holdings — some in companies that do business with DoD.

A 2008 report by the Center for Responsive Politics estimated Kerry had between $29 million and $38 million invested in companies that received defense contracts between 2004 and 2006, putting him at the top of the list of lawmakers with investments in companies with DoD contracts.

The report showed not just how many lawmakers had investments in these companies, but also how the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan had changed what it meant to be a defense contractor.

Lockheed Martin, General Dynamics and Raytheon are still big players, but the list of companies receiving money from the Pentagon also includes Procter & Gamble, Exxon Mobil and Pepsico. The military’s need for all kinds of goods and services expanded over a decade of fighting two wars.

The 2008 report noted that in 2006, Kerry had somewhere between $3 million and $5 million invested directly in traditional defense companies.

According to Kerry’s office, most of those stocks belong to his wife, Teresa Heinz, whose finances would also come under scrutiny if Kerry were nominated by President Barack Obama for a position in the Cabinet.

If Obama picks Kerry for the Pentagon job, his and his family’s financial holdings could take a much bigger hit than if he were nominated to run the State Department, experts on the process said. That’s partly because the rules used by the Senate Armed Services Committee are more stringent than those used by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

Congress can do anything as they exempt themselves. With the amount of Corruption brought to us by Obama ans his Chicago Klan why do we even care about the DOD making bundles. Besides, Kickbacks are common place in today's Washington DC